The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-05-26

purpose of touching this train, but from
some reason there was a clash in
the pan" and rather than give up and go
away empty handed, it was determined to
attack the up-bound express. The point
selected was an admirable one. The
country, as stated yesterday, is rough,
full of thickets and sparsely settled. The
train pirates captured the operator
before the arrival of the train, cut
the wires and destroyed the telegraphic
instrument, thus effectually cutting off
communication with the outside world
until they had succeeded in making good
their escape.
STATEMENT OF AN EYEWITNESS.
Mr.. ]. S. Woods is "helper" on the
postal car and runs between this city and
Taylor. He was sought by a STATESMAN
reporter at the postoffice yesterday, and
the following facts were obtained from
him. Said he: "We left here at 1886
and reached MoNeill junction, thirteen
miles above here, about 8 or quarter
past O'Clock. 1t is customary when we
each this point, for the porter to go for
ward and flag the crossing, land this he pro-
ceeded to do as usual. When a short dis
lance in advance of the engine he was
confronted by crowd of men who ordered
him back, at the same time opening fire
upon him. The porter ran back, crying
out as he did so: Don't shoot! don't
shoot! Pm not convict evidently sup
posing the mob to be party in search of
escapes. When the shooting commenced
l was in the act of tying up package,
and had Just leaned to one side to get a
knife with which to cut the string. While
in this position a bullet crashed through
the side of the car and whistled past me;
l should say within four inches Of my
face. Had I been standing erect would
have been in direct line of the shot, and
would have caught it in my head. I judge
from its force that it was fred from a
Winchester rifle in the course of the in
discriminate volley that was discharged at
the fleeing porter, who escaped without
injury, but how he did SO is mystery.
The onslaught was so sudden that the next
thing knew the route agent and l were
each covered by pair of ugly looking
revolvers in the hands of men who cody
ordered us to keep quiet. The engineer,
fireman and conductor, with the station
operator, were driven back into the
smoking car under cover of weapons, and
an attack was then made on the express
car. The messenger, Mr.. A. ]. Northacker,
had closed his doors, and when COM
manded to open them pluckily re-
fused to do so. The leader of the crowd,
a tall, slender man, with light whiskers,
that looked in the dim light to be false
beard, ordered the door to be broken
open, which was done, and a portion of
the gang jumped into the car, striking
the messenger over the head with their
pistols as they did so. cannot say how
much they got from the express,
but l saw the tall man with
a good sized sack of coin in each hand. I
cannot say whether it was gold or silver.
He came up to the door of the mail car
and demanded one of the empty pouches,
but man standing by him said: If we
take anything out of that car we might as
we'll take all of it, for it's
the United States mail The an
swer was, That's SO; we don't want
to run against Uncle Sam; we just want
to tap Jay Gould little Bit When the
crowd made the attack, one of them called
out to the passengers, Keep your seats;
we don't intend to hang any of you if you
will be quiet After the leader had made
his remark about not running against
Uncle Sam, he said to one
of his companions, Il guess
we can lug it along in
this way The men who held us under
cover chatted with US pretty freely, talk
ing about how much they expected to get.
One of them asked me for chew of to-
bacco, and made me give him my hat,
saying he had lost his own. When they
had finished their work they ranged them
selves alongside fence, and ordered the
engineer to pull out.
1 felt considerably relieved when
| got from in front of those
six shooters, but 1 did not feel really
frightened until saw that bullet hole in
the car, and considered the closeness of
the call upon me. 1 suppose we were de-
tanned about twenty-five minutes. did
not know at the time that anybody had
been hurt, but learned afterwards that
one of the brakemen got a furrow plowed
across his forehead, and a gentleman
named Harry Lander, from San Antonio,
en- route to Kansas, was shot through the
hand by stray bullet. He got off at Taylor,
where his wound was dressed and he then
took the next train for home. l under
stand that he is brother-in-law of Mr..
Phil. Abrahams, of this city"
THE AMOUNTS TAKEN.
As is always the case, in such
occurrences as this, there is
always a wide degree of speculation
as to the amount of the losses. 1t seems
to be clearly settled now that none of the
passengers were disturbed. The most
general street report concerning the loss
to the Pacific Express company fixes the
amount at $4,000. A STATESMAN report
er who called at the Office of the company
here yesterday, was told that it would nee
essarily be light; that San Antonio had
sent out only about 800, and Austin only
about $4,000, of which $500 was in silver
and the remainder in drafts. The re-
porter was also told that if there had been
any heavy shipments they would have
ben in safe that is built into the car, the
combination of which is not known to the
messenger. The most conservative opinion
as to the amount of the loss places it at
between $4,000 and $4,000.
NOTES.
United States Marshal Rankin returned
from the pursuit last night.
In the report yesterday morning, it
was stated that Captain SEEKER, of the ad
jutant generals office, had refused
to loan guns to the posse.
Tb;s doaa on iniustica to that